gems, corundum, History.1, Arab gemology, Arabic mineralogy, early lapidaries

This French translation by Idris de Vos presents the preface and preamble to the first volume of al-Sha‘rânî’s Al-Yawâqît wa al-Jawâhir fî bayân ‘Aqâ’id al-Akâbir (“The Precious Gems”), a major work of Islamic theology and Sufi doctrine rather than a treatise on gemstones. The introductory material provides a biography of ‘Abd al-Wahhâb al-Sha‘rânî, describes his teachers, spiritual formation, and relationship to the intellectual tradition of Muhyî al-Dîn Ibn ‘Arabî, and explains the organization and purpose of the complete work. Al-Sha‘rânî states that his objective is to compare doctrines founded on speculative reasoning with those derived from spiritual unveiling and direct vision, demonstrating where apparently contradictory positions can be reconciled. His principal source is Ibn ‘Arabî’s Al-Futûhât al-Makkiyya, whose teachings he seeks to clarify and defend while measuring them against the Qur’an, prophetic tradition, and established Sunni theology. The complete work addresses ontology, cosmology, prophecy, metaphysics, eschatology, free will, divine attributes, and other fundamental doctrinal questions. Despite its title, “precious gems” is metaphorical: yawâqît, the plural of yâqût, is explained here as literally referring more specifically to “hyacinth” but, like the French gemme, capable of designating any precious stone.